Miami University Triathlon

I was thinking about how I would approach writing about the races themselves that I participate in. I think the most beneficial thing to do for my own sake and maybe for other triathletes is to offer a "lessons learned" debrief. I guess some of my race takeaways will be specific to my goals and racing style but hopefully some triathlete lost in cyberspace will find something useful:

Lessons:

#1 I need to get some Yankz. The guy next to me in the transition area had them and I could save up to a minute in transition not having to tie up my laces.

#2 My strategy for the short course worked really well. That is, I gave everything on the bike. I rode like the only thing waiting for me was the couch. What I found is that a 5k is short enough that no matter how hard I go on the bike, I can grind it out without taking a huge hit on my run time.

#3 Talking trash on the course pays off in mph. I followed this guy out of T1 that looked like a stud. Tricked out bike, aero helmet and an MDot (ironman) tattoo. Given my bike strategy I decided to try to stick with him. He was a lot lighter than I was so he lost me up hills but given my gravity-friendly body type, I would always catch him on the flats and descents. We started talking trash as we would overtake each other. Stuff like, "unhook the plow!" and "take the trailer off, buddy!" It was a lot of fun and translated into a good bike split.

#4 Drafting on the run is legal and it works, if only psychologically. USAT prohibits drafting on the bike. And obviously, the benefits of drafting on the run are much smaller but again I found a strong runner and mentally attached myself to his heels. It was helpful.

#5 My swim still sucks.

Ok, that about does it. It was a fun race and while my chip wasn't working on this race last year, my unofficial time, recorded only by me, was a full 10 minutes slower than this year. New short course PR. Sweet!